Story Highlights

Rocky's Hot Chicken Shack, which first opened in 2009 in a squat, aesthetically-challenged building on Hendersonville Road, is coming home to roost.

The restaurant, which sells fried chicken in heat levels ranging from mild to mercilessly hot, served with a slew of Southern sides, currently operates out of a small Patton Avenue restaurant. But come next month, Rocky's will open another location at 3749 Sweeten Creek Road, a building that strays even further from the humble digs of the original.

This is no shack. "We get criticized often for not being shacky enough," laughed owner Richard Cundiff. "I can't help it. My wife has good taste."

The new Arden eatery is massive compared to its Patton Avenue sister. At 4,800 square feet, the new building will be able to house 120 people dining at rough-wood and stainless-steel tables in a gold-and-orange painted dining room. There's room for another 60 folks on an expansive walled patio, the bones of which are already in place.

That's double the capacity of the Patton Avenue restaurant. And that means Cundiff finally has room to stretch his wings in ways he's always wanted.

"Our hands were tied down there," said Cundiff of the Patton Ave. eatery, which he helped open in 2011 with original hot-chicken slinger Rocky Lindsley. Lindsley is no longer involved with the business, but he and his Asheville band do like to rock the shack — and they should now have the space to do so.

"This is our chance to do our fantasy and have some music out on the porch," Cundiff said.

The kitchen side of the restaurant is equally tricked out. Two kitchen areas will allow for expansion of Rocky's growing catering business. Large walk-in coolers and freezers allow for more storage. A small 20-person dining room, called "the coop," to the side of the bar will allow for private parties. And a rotisserie oven has space for up to 35 whole roasting birds at once.

That's a facet of the grab-and-go side of Rocky's, which Cundiff expects to be popular with local families. $25 gets a whole rotisserie chicken, two sides and a mess of biscuits — enough for a family of four, he said.

Arden is very family oriented, and Cundiff said he'd like to shake the impression that the shack has nothing to offer but spicy bird. It's a tough notion to dispel; "hot chicken" is in the restaurant's name.

"We fight that battle on every front. So often men say they can't get their wives to come in because she doesn't like spicy food," said Cundiff. "But we have chicken pot pie, plain chicken, whatever."

But word travels fast among parents and kids, said Cundiff. Which is why he's pushing the chicken tenders and kids plates (and the 16 taps of beer and full bar for the parents). There's also a childcare center right upstairs from the restaurant.

"I feel like we really are in the right spot," Cundiff said. "There are so many rooftops down here, so many families. And kids love our food."